Derrick Baskin

Growing up around the lights of Broadway in New York City, Derrick Baskin took his time to get to the stage, first going to college to study biology. He eventually worked his way to success by creating the role of Mitch Mahoney in the Off-Broadway the Broadway production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," which was a well regarded breakout success. Baskin rode that wave to the role of Jetsam in "The Little Mermaid" and then went on to originate the role of Gator in his next production, the Tony Award-winning musical "Memphis." The show was also recorded for the film version "Memphis the Musical" (2011). After the success of "Memphis," Baskin started to appear more on the big and small screen more, showing up in the Jamie Foxx-starring "Annie" (2014) as well as several episodes of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC 1999- ) and "Difficult People" (Hulu 2015-17). His return to Broadway would be a good one, as he played the lead Otis Williams in The Temptations-inspired "Ain't Too Proud," which earned Baskin his first-ever Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical in 2019.